No chance for overturning monument, legislators say

No chance for overturning monument, legislators say

April 5, 2001

"I was hoping that perhaps the door would be open just a little bit, but it clearly is not."

— Gene Story
County Commissioner

By Jim Mimiaga
Journal Staff Writer

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Without a major shift in national public opinion, there is virtually no possibility that the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument will be overturned or legislatively modified, the Montezuma County commissioners were told this week.

The board’s hopes that the new Republican administration could garner support for rolling back the monument designation vanished after several meetings with U.S. senators and representatives.

"We’ve gone as far as we could go on this," said Commissioner Gene Story following Wednesday’s meetings at the U.S. Capitol. "I was hoping that perhaps the door would be open just a little bit, but it clearly is not."

The commissioners had been optimistic that support for securing more lenient regulations regarding multiple uses for the 164,000-acre, BLM-managed monument outside Cortez. But while Colorado Sens. Wayne Allard and Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Rep. Scott McInnis sympathized with the board’s concerns, they said there is too much resistance from the environmental community to try for change.

"You’re stuck with it," said Campbell. "And I do not see President Bush pushing for overturning monuments."

Encouraged by letters sent out by new Interior Secretary Gale Norton and long-time Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah) that asked for input from communities with new national monuments, the commissioners went to Washington to hear firsthand what their options were.

Describing the land-use restrictions under the Canyons of the Ancients as "out of our comfort zone," the commissioners sought support for returning the ruins-rich region to its former designation as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

They argued that, with a good management plan and adequate fund, the ACEC designation would afford the same protections as a monument for the area’s fragile archaeological resources while keeping the site more anonymous.

"We did not feel it was a pristine-enough area to warrant a monument, with all of the development and transmission lines and roads out there already," said commission chairman Kent Lindsay. "Putting it on the map is like saying ‘X marks the spot’ for increased vandalism, looting and impacts."

But, McInnis said Wednesday, those letters from Norton and Hansen were misleading and should not have been delivered because they presented "a false hope and falsely raised expectations."

"It is unfortunate that those signals were sent out, because it is unfair to you and others to suggest an opportunity that is just not there," he said.

McInnis put the changes for overturning or altering the monument at "zero," adding, "Those who believe otherwise are leading their troops to slaughter because the support is not there — not even close."

"What you should do is put all of your energy into the management-planning process," he said. "That is where these issues need to be worked out."

Nationally, there is ample support for the rash of new monuments designated by President Clinton during his last year in office. The absence of bills to overturn them is the proof, said Virginia Johnson, a legislative aide for a key public-lands committee headed by Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.)

"I have not heard of any except for Craters of the Moon in Idaho, so this shows us that communities are happy with their new monuments," Johnson said. A bill to change Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho to a national preserve has had success in initial committees.

The monument was expanded by 600,000 acres under Clinton, but key hunting-rights promises were not kept, so a bill to reinstate them was introduced and has garnered support, she said.

On Tuesday, the commissioners received a warm welcome from Utah’s Hansen, who told them he would support any bill McInnis put forth regarding Canyons of the Ancients. However, no bills appear to be forthcoming.

Hansen said the Craters of the Moon bill "is the first shot across the bow of the Clinton/(Bruce) Babbitt ship." Babbitt was Interior secretary under Clinton.

Hansen heads the powerful Committee on Resources, which would have to approve any monument bills before they could reach the House floor for a vote.

"McInnis is your man. If you can convert him, then I’m converted," Hansen said.

Hansen pulled no punches when describing his distaste for what he sees as Clinton’s abuse of the Antiquities Act of 1906, the powerful presidential tool he used to preserve public lands under the national-monument designations.

"I will try to convince Bush to try a test case that legally challenges it," Hansen said. "The law says you name the site and then designate the smallest amount of acreage possible (for protection)."

He said he would support legislation to limit the powers of the act, mainly by restricting the amount of acreage protected to 50,000 acres or less and by requiring 60-day notice for Congress and communities. But those bills are in their infancy and not likely to gain much support in light of the environmental lobby, he said.

"Rolling back monuments would be seen by them (environmentalists) as reducing land and resource protection, even though, as you know, the ACEC essentially creates the same protections." said Mike Hess, chief of staff for McInnis.

Still the trip was useful, the commissioners said, because it worked to "put to bed" accusations by the Southwest Colorado Landowners Association that the commissioners were ignoring an opportunity to have the monument overturned.

"We were being accused of not enough action, and so we came to find out where we stand, and now we know," Story said.